An interview with Carla Roncoli. When bringing new ideas of agricultural practices to the local level, many highlight the value of local knowledge. The willingness to adapt to new practices, and the farmers’ ability to choose in limited situations when decision-making is economically, politically and culturally embedded, are much discussed. Are the farmers the real agents of their own lives, or subordinates of the political and economical structures? How about the fight of local knowledge versus the praised scientific information and technical innovations of the global North? Farmers do have the ability to be relatively flexible, though commercial agriculture may set the farmers in a more vulnerable position, states Dr. Carla Roncoli from the Emory University. As an example, Dr. Roncoli mentions how concentrating on one or two cash crops, instead of previously practised diverse agriculture, sets the farmers on a higher risk. This happened to the farmers in Burkina Faso when theybegan to concentrate on cotton production. It is a dominating system demanding commitment from the farmer, thus reducing the flexibility of the farmer for choosing alternatives when the resources are scarce. Global processes are powerful. But people are no puppets. They strive to make things work. Dr. Roncoli refers to the idea of agency and continues by stating that farmers are not static bodies of know-how; they are dynamically integrating new ways of doing things. As an example Dr. Roncoli reminds that, when implementing the ideas of Green Revolution, the farmers picked up the elements that fit for their practices and also adapted those they found useful. Do all the new ideas come from up to the down, then? Farmers have been around for ages, developing and integrating new systems. When it comes to the criticism of the global North dominating with its scientific information and technical innovations, Dr. Roncoli thinks that it is a question of how they are developed and brought to the local level. She emphasizes collaborative processes that start with asking what the local people want. We cannot define their needs. Still, local knowledge, just because it’s local, does not always work. Especially in rapid changes, like those of the climate or the markets, Dr. Roncoli adds. One should not consider the Western-based information always as the bad guy. There is precious know-how, and that can be brought to the local level with respect to the local knowledge. No scientists who tend to already have all the answers are needed. To begin with, we need action of collaboration and participation.